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Character analysis

Beelzebub

in Paradise Lost by John Milton

Beelzebub is Satan's right-hand angel in John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), acting as the chief lieutenant whose main role is to bolster Satan's authority while pushing the story toward humanity's downfall. He first appears in Book I alongside Satan on the burning lake of Hell, his once-majestic form now tarnished and broken—a clear symbol of the consequences of rebellion. While Satan exudes defiant grandeur, Beelzebub takes a more cautious and pragmatic approach: he recognizes God's unbeatable power even as he commits to ongoing resistance, giving Satan's mission an air of calculated reasoning instead of mere arrogance.

His most significant moment occurs during the Great Consult in Book II. After the fallen angels discuss various strategies—open war, deceit, or despair—Beelzebub speaks up to suggest corrupting God's newly created humans. Milton indicates that this idea was secretly crafted by Satan and communicated through Beelzebub, making him more of a mouthpiece than an independent thinker. This detail strips away any illusion of democratic discussion in Hell, showing the council to be mere performance. Beelzebub's persuasive speech wins over the group, and Satan volunteers for the risky solo mission to Earth, solidifying his role as a heroic villain.

Beelzebub's main characteristics—seriousness, eloquence, and loyal subservience—make him the perfect counterpart for Satan: credible enough to influence, yet dependent enough to never challenge him. After Book II, he vanishes from the narrative, having fulfilled his role as the instrument of Hell's pivotal decision.

About this character

Form
Novel
Author
John Milton
First published
1667

The person01–03

01·Who they are

Who is Beelzebub?

Beelzebub enters Paradise Lost as Satan's closest lieutenant, one of the greatest fallen angels and, in Milton's hierarchy of Hell, second only to Satan. His name carries pre-existing weight: drawn from biblical tradition as a lord of demons, Milton retains the title and endows it with political meaning. When he first appears in Book I, lying beside Satan on the burning lake, his physical description is deliberately ruinous—his face, "deep scars of thunder," retains traces of former glory, but those traces only sharpen the sense of irreversible loss. Milton presents him neither as a comic devil nor a mere brute, but as a figure of damaged magnificence: still eloquent, still commanding, yet unmistakably broken. This combination makes him useful to Satan and captivating to the reader.

02·Arc & motivation

What is Beelzebub's arc and motivation?

Beelzebub's arc is narrow but structurally essential. He does not undergo transformation; instead, he serves as the mechanism by which transformation occurs in the plot. In Book I, he functions as Satan's sounding board, absorbing and reflecting his leader's defiant energy while quietly introducing a note of realism: he acknowledges that God has proven "his strength the stronger" and that brute warfare against omnipotence is futile. This pragmatism is his defining characteristic. While Satan exhibits heroic resolve, Beelzebub calculates.

His motivation is loyalty institutionalized—he has bound himself so thoroughly to Satan's cause that independent ambition never surfaces. His goal is not personal glory but the perpetuation of Hell's resistance, identifying the corruption of humankind as the only viable path toward that goal. Once he voices the plan in Book II and secures the council's agreement, his narrative purpose is complete. He disappears not because Milton forgets him, but because a tool has fulfilled its role.

03·Key moments

What are Beelzebub's key moments?

Book I, the burning lake: Beelzebub's first words establish his realism. He admits divine superiority while refusing despair, a balance that distinguishes him from Satan's purer defiance and from the paralysis of other fallen angels. The scene also establishes physical proximity as a symbol of ideological closeness: these two figures are inseparable.

Book II, the Great Consult: This is Beelzebub's defining scene. After Moloch's furious call for war, Belial's counsel of passive endurance, and Mammon's suggestion of building contentment in Hell, Beelzebub rises and redirects the entire assembly. His speech is masterful rhetoric—measured, grave, seemingly disinterested—proposing that Hell strike at God through the newly created human race. Milton's narrator reveals that "Satan … first devised" this plan and "moved our envoy" to speak it, collapsing Beelzebub's apparent statesmanship into ventriloquism. The council's apparent debate becomes theatre; Beelzebub's eloquence serves as Satan's instrument wearing a more persuasive face.

Satan's volunteer mission: Beelzebub frames the solo journey to Earth as a task requiring unimaginable courage, ensuring that when Satan steps forward, he does so to maximum rhetorical effect. Even here, Beelzebub is staging a performance scripted by another.

The cast04–05

04·Relationships

What are Beelzebub's most important relationships?

Beelzebub and Satan form the poem's most intimate bond, yet it is wholly asymmetric. Satan thinks; Beelzebub speaks. Their pairing on the burning lake literalizes their interdependence, but the council scene quietly exposes its hierarchy: Beelzebub possesses no autonomous authority. His apparent influence is entirely delegated. He is less a co-conspirator than Satan's public voice—more credible to the assembly precisely because he is not Satan, yet entirely controlled by him.

Beelzebub and God the Father exist in the relationship of grudging acknowledger to acknowledged power. Beelzebub's concession in Book I that God has demonstrated superior strength is the pivot on which his entire strategic logic turns. He cannot beat omnipotence, so he must corrupt what omnipotence loves. His pragmatism is, paradoxically, a form of theological clarity that the other fallen angels lack.

Beelzebub, Adam, and Eve are connected by causation without contact. Beelzebub never meets either human, yet his council speech is the proximate origin of everything that destroys them. Their innocence, their fall, their expulsion—all trace back to the plan he articulates in Book II. This distance makes him more sinister: harm delivered through policy rather than presence.

Raphael narrates the War in Heaven in which Beelzebub fought as a rebel, embedding him in a cautionary history told specifically to warn Adam. Beelzebub thus exists in Raphael's account as an exemplar of disobedience, his ruin a data point in the moral lesson Eden's guardian delivers.

05·Connected characters

How is Beelzebub connected to the other characters?

Satan

Beelzebub is Satan's closest ally and deliberate mouthpiece.

Full commentary

Beelzebub is Satan's closest ally and deliberate mouthpiece. They fall together, lie side by side on Hell's burning lake in Book I, and Satan secretly scripts the plan Beelzebub presents in Book II's council. Their relationship reveals Hell's hierarchy as autocratic: Beelzebub's apparent authority is entirely derivative of Satan's will, making him less a co-leader than an instrument of Satan's rhetoric and ambition.

God the Father

God the Father is Beelzebub's ultimate adversary and the power he grudgingly acknowledges cannot be overcome by force. In Book I Beelzebub concedes that God has proven 'his strength the stronger,' a realism that distinguishes him from Satan's more absolute defiance. This acknowledgment shapes his pragmatic pivot toward indirect corruption of humanity as the only viable strategy against omnipotence.

Adam

Adam is the indirect target of the plan Beelzebub proposes in Book II. By advocating the corruption of humankind, Beelzebub sets in motion the chain of events that leads to Adam's fall. Though the two never meet directly, Beelzebub's council speech is the proximate cause of the catastrophe that destroys Adam's innocence and expels him from Paradise.

Eve

Like Adam, Eve is a target rather than an interlocutor for Beelzebub. His proposal in the infernal council specifically identifies the newly created human pair as vulnerable points through which Hell can wound God indirectly. Eve's eventual temptation and fall are the downstream consequence of the strategy Beelzebub voices before the assembled fallen host.

Michael

Michael is among the loyal archangels who fought against Satan and his followers in the War in Heaven (Books V–VI). Beelzebub, as a leading rebel, was part of the host Michael helped defeat and expel. Their opposition is structural rather than dramatized in direct confrontation, representing the broader enmity between the fallen and the faithful angels.

Raphael

Raphael recounts the War in Heaven to Adam in Books V–VI, narrating the rebellion in which Beelzebub participated. Beelzebub thus figures in Raphael's cautionary history as one of the chief architects of angelic revolt, his fall serving as an implicit warning to Adam about the dangers of disobedience and misplaced ambition.

Study06–07

06·Questions

Questions readers ask about Beelzebub

What is Beelzebub's role in Paradise Lost?

Beelzebub is Satan's chief lieutenant, the second-highest figure in Hell's hierarchy and the angel who voices the plan to corrupt humanity in Book II's infernal council. He first appears alongside Satan on Hell's burning lake in Book I, his once-majestic form now scarred and ruined. Although he seems to act independently, Milton reveals his role as Satan's mouthpiece, giving Hell's autocracy the appearance of democratic debate.

What plan does Beelzebub propose at the Great Consult in Book II?

Beelzebub proposes that Hell abandon direct war against God and instead corrupt His newly created human beings—Adam and Eve—wounding God indirectly. His speech redirects the entire council away from Moloch's call for open war and Belial's counsel of passive endurance. Critically, Milton's narrator reveals that Satan secretly devised this scheme and used Beelzebub as his instrument to present it, exposing the council as theatrical performance.

Is Beelzebub an independent thinker or just Satan's puppet?

Beelzebub is ultimately Satan's puppet, despite his air of measured statesmanship. Milton's narrator explicitly states that Satan "first devised" the plan to corrupt humanity and "moved" Beelzebub to speak it before the assembled fallen host. This revelation diminishes Beelzebub's apparent authority into ventriloquism—he is more persuasive to the council than Satan would be precisely because he appears to be an independent voice, yet he exercises no autonomous will.

How does Beelzebub's relationship with Satan work in Paradise Lost?

Their relationship is intimate but wholly asymmetric. They fall together, lie side by side on Hell's burning lake in Book I, and share the same cause—yet Satan thinks and Beelzebub speaks. Beelzebub possesses no independent authority; whatever influence he wields in the council is entirely delegated by Satan. Milton uses this pairing to dramatize Satan's control while allowing him to avoid addressing the fallen host in his own name.

How does Beelzebub view God's power compared to Satan?

Beelzebub is more clear-eyed about God's omnipotence than Satan. In Book I he concedes that God has proven "his strength the stronger," acknowledging that direct warfare against divine power is futile—a realism that distinguishes him from Satan's grander, more absolute defiance. This pragmatic acknowledgment drives him to propose indirect corruption of humanity as the only viable strategy Hell can pursue.

Does Beelzebub ever interact directly with Adam or Eve?

Beelzebub never meets Adam or Eve directly—his connection to them is entirely causal. By proposing the corruption of humankind in Book II's council, he sets in motion the chain of events that leads to their temptation, fall, and expulsion from Paradise. Milton makes him more sinister for this distance: the catastrophe that destroys Adam and Eve's innocence traces back to a policy Beelzebub articulated in Hell, harm delivered through strategy rather than presence.

Why does Beelzebub disappear after Book II of Paradise Lost?

Beelzebub vanishes from the narrative after the Great Consult because his structural purpose is complete. Milton uses him not as a developing character but as a mechanism: once his speech wins the council over to the plan of corrupting humanity and Satan volunteers for the mission to Earth, Beelzebub has fulfilled his function. His absence after Book II emphasizes that he was always a tool of the plot rather than an agent with his own ongoing arc.

What does Beelzebub look like in Paradise Lost, and what does his appearance symbolize?

In Book I, Beelzebub bears "deep scars of thunder" on his face—a figure of damaged magnificence whose traces of former angelic glory sharpen the sense of irreversible loss. Milton presents him as neither comic nor brutish, but as a broken yet still commanding presence. His ruined appearance functions as a theological argument: rebellion against God does not produce heroic freedom but self-inflicted degradation, visible on the very body of one of Hell's greatest angels.

07·Essay angles

Use this in your essay

Tool · Essay angles

  • The problem of political authority in Hell: Beelzebub is presented as an independent voice yet revealed as a mouthpiece. What does this say about the nature of infernal "democracy," and how does Milton utilize Beelzebub to critique political rhetoric more broadly?

  • Pragmatism versus heroic defiance: Compare Beelzebub's realism with Satan's grandstanding. Argue that Beelzebub represents a more genuinely dangerous form of evil precisely because he grounds rebellion in achievable strategy rather than spectacular pride.

  • Indirect agency and moral responsibility: Beelzebub never directly harms Adam or Eve. Construct a thesis on whether his distance from the act of temptation increases or diminishes his culpability, drawing on his role as architect of the plan in Book II.

  • The function of the lieutenant figure: Analyze how Beelzebub's loyalty and eloquence allow Milton to dramatize Satan's authority without making Satan address the council purely in his own name. What is gained—narratively and thematically—by this doubling?

  • Ruined magnificence as moral argument: Milton describes both Satan and Beelzebub as fallen glories. Compare their physical descriptions in Book I and argue how the imagery of tarnished grandeur serves Milton's broader theological point about the self-destructive nature of pride.

Paradise Lost

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